What Is Psychology? Chapter One

Psychology as a Science Definition:

Psychology as a Science As science, uses the ______________________, as opposed to subjective opinion, to develop theories about variables to describe, explain, predict, and control behavior and mental processes

Definition: a formulation of relationships underlying observed events Theory Definition: a formulation of relationships underlying observed events Describe: The play activity of a 5 year old Explain: Theory of why 5-year old developed such play activity Predict: What would occur with a different child with similar or different experiences? Control: How can we influence the development of play activity? (for the benefit of the individual, rather than to meet the goals or demands of others

Theory Based on assumptions about behavior and mental processes Contain statements about the principles and laws that may govern them Describe: The play activity of a 5 year old Explain: Theory of why 5-year old developed such play activity Predict: What would occur with a different child with similar or different experiences? Control: How can we influence the development of play activity? (for the benefit of the individual, rather than to meet the goals or demands of others

Theory Allow us to derive explanations and predictions ______________, ____________, ______________, _____________ Describe: The play activity of a 5 year old Explain: Theory of why 5-year old developed such play activity Predict: What would occur with a different child with similar or different experiences? Control: How can we influence the development of play activity? (for the benefit of the individual, rather than to meet the goals or demands of others

What Psychologists Do Wide variety of subject areas for psychologists Pure Research vs. Applied Research

What Psychologists Do ________________: Conducted without concern for immediate applications to personal or social problems (research for its own sake)

What Psychologists Do _________________: Designed to find solutions to specific personal or social problems

Subfields of Psychology Clinical Counseling School Educational

Subfields of Psychology Developmental Social/Personality Experimental Cognitive

Subfields of Psychology Industrial/Organizational Physiological/Biological Emerging Fields: Forensic & Health

Clinical Psychology Specialize in helping people with psychological problems adjust to the demands of life Ex: anxiety, depression, sexual dysfunctions, loss of goals Evaluate problems through structural interviews and psychological tests

Clinical Psychology Help clients resolve their problems and change maladaptive behavior through techniques of ______________ and ______________________

Clinical Psychology Psychotherapy: Application of psychological knowledge to the treatment of problem behavior

Clinical Psychology Behavior Therapy: Application of learning to the direct _________________ of problem behavior

Clinical Psychology Work in institutions for mentally ill, outpatient clinics, college clinics, private practice __________________ subgroup (what most people think when hear about psych) Differs from psychiatrist (medical doctors who specialize in treatment)

Counseling Counsel people facing challenges Use interviews and tests to define their clients problems Clients typically have ___________________ problems but not serious psychological disorders

Counseling Clients may encounter difficulty in making academic or vocational decisions or making friends, marital and family conflicts, physical handicaps, adjustment problems Various counseling methods to help clients clarify goals and find ways of surmounting goals

Counseling Employed at college counseling and testing centers, rehabilitation agencies

School Psychologists Facilitating the social, intellectual, and emotional development of _____________ Work in schools Consult with students with problems that interfere with _______________ Ex: social, family, emotional problems, and specific learning disorders

School Psychologists Define problems through: interviews with parents, teachers, students, achievement and intelligence tests, classroom observations Consult with teachers, school officials, parents, teachers and other professionals Placement of students in special education and remediation programs

Educational Psychologists Concerned with optimizing classroom conditions to _________________________ Design educational programs and train teachers

Educational Psychologists Improvement of course planning and instructional methods Research interests include how motivation, intelligence, sociocultural factors such as poverty and acculturation and teacher behavior affect learning

Developmental Study the changes (physical, emotional, cognitive, and social) that occur throughout the life span Influences of heredity (nature) and environment (nurture) on development Topics: effects of maternal drug use on the embryo, child rearing practices, adolescent conflicts, adjustment among older people

Social/personality How we influence and interact with ____________________ Define human traits, determine influence on thought processes, feelings and behavior, explain psychological disorders Human issues (anxiety, aggression, gender roles)

Social and external influences Social/personality Social and external influences Attitude formation and change, interpersonal attractions and likings, stereotypes, conformity to group norms, group decision making processes Personality: tend to look within the person for explanations of behavior

Experimental Conduct _______________ into fundamental processes relevant to more applied specialties Nervous system, sensation, perception, learning, memory, thought, motivation, emotion More likely to engage in basic or pure research (usually study animals)

Industrial/Organizational Behavior in the ______________; improving businesses in areas such as personnel, organizational efficiency Relationships between people and work Assist in processes such as hiring, training, and promotion

Industrial/Organizational Devise tests that predict successful performance of various jobs (gallup poll) Make technical systems (computer) more user friendly Strategies to appeal to the ________________

Emerging Fields _______________: expertise within the criminal-justice system Serve as expert witnesses, testify about competence of defendants to stand trial or describe mental disorders and how affect _____________________________ Counsel officers help with stress, hostage situations, suicide threats

Emerging Fields ________________:examine the ways in which behavior and mental processes such as attitudes are related to physical health Headaches, cardiovascular disease, cancer Patient compliance with medical advice Guide clients to take undertake more healthy behaviors such as exercising, quitting smoking, healthy diet

Which subfield are you most interested in and why?

Where does Psychology Come From? A Brief History

Psychology is as old as history and as modern as today Aristotle: Greek philosopher Peri Psyches (About the Psyche)-nature of mind behavior People are basically motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain (modern view)

Psychology is as old as history and as modern as today Democritus: behavior as body and a mind Behavior influenced by external stimulation First to raise issue of free will or choice

Psychology is as old as history and as modern as today If we are influenced by external forces, can we be said to control our own behavior? Question: where do the influences of others end and our “real selves” begin?

Structuralism Willhelm Wundt: ____________________ ____________________________________ 1897: established first psychological laboratory in Leipzig,Germany Claimed that the mind was a natural event and could be studied scientifically (light, heat, flow of blood)

Structuralism Define makeup of conscious experience, breaking it down into objective sensations (light and taste) and subjective feelings (emotional responses, will, mental images) Believe that mind functions by creatively combining the ________________________________

Functionalism Emphasizes the uses or functions of the _____________ rather than the elements of experience Deals with overt behavior as well as consciousness

Functionalism William James (1842-1910): Wrote first modern psychology textbook, The Principles of Psychology

Functionalism The “fittest” behavior patterns survive Influenced by Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory The “fittest” behavior patterns survive Adaptive actions tend to be repeated and become habits

Behaviorism John Watson (1878-1958): Founder of behaviorism Psychology must limit itself to ________________, ____________________ events-to behavior

Behaviorism Examples: Pressing a lever, turning left or right, eating and mating, heart rate, dilation of the pupils

Behaviorism Psychology address the learning of measurable responses to environmental stimuli Pavlov’s salivating dogs (conditioning not mental processes)

Behaviorism B.F Skinner (1904-1990): ___________________: organisms learn to behave in certain ways because they have been reinforced for doing so

Gestalt Focused on _________________ and on how perception influences thinking and problem solving

Gestalt Wholes that give meaning to parts Perceptions more than the sum of its parts Wholes that give meaning to parts

Gestalt Learning to solve problems, is accomplished by ________________, not by mechanical repetition “Aha moment” flash of insight

Psychoanalysis Emphasizes the importance of ________________ motives and ______________ as determinants of human behavior

Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): Believed that unconscious thought , especially sexual and aggressive impulses, were more influential than conscious thought in determining human behavior.

Psychoanalysis People motivated to gratify these impulses and urges Thought mind was unconscious, consisting of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes. People motivated to gratify these impulses and urges

Psychoanalysis Freud: gained his understanding of people through clinical interviews with patients Gain insight into deep-seated conflicts and find socially acceptable ways of expressing wishes and gratifying needs

How Today’s Psychologists View Behavior

Perspectives Biological (Neuroscience) Cognitive Humanistic-Existential Psychodynamic Behavioral (Learning) Socialcultural Evolutionary

Psychology’s Perspectives The Big Seven

Neuroscience Perspective Focus on how the physical body and brain creates our emotions, memories and sensory experiences. Study hormones, genes, and activity of the central nervous system, especially the ________________.

Evolutionary Perspective Focuses on Darwinism. We behave the way we do because we __________ those behaviors. Thus, those behaviors must have helped ensure our ancestors ________________. How could this behavior ensured Homer’s ancestors survival?

Approaches cont. Evolutionary/Sociobiological Focus is on how certain behaviors may have helped our ancestors survive. (mother nature practicing selective breeding)

Psychodynamic Perspective Fathered by Sigmund ___________. Our behavior comes from _____________ drives. Usually stemming from our __________. What might a psychoanalyst say is the reason someone always needs to be chewing gum?

Psychoanalysis Emphasizes the importance of ____________ motives and ___________ as determinants of human behavior Psychology 7e in Modules

Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): Believed that unconscious thought , especially sexual and aggressive impulses, were more influential than conscious thought in determining human behavior. Psychology 7e in Modules

Psychoanalysis People motivated to gratify these impulses and urges Thought mind was unconscious, consisting of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes. People motivated to gratify these impulses and urges Psychology 7e in Modules

Psychoanalysis Freud: gained his understanding of people through clinical __________ with patients Gain insight into deep-seated conflicts and find socially acceptable ways of expressing wishes and gratifying needs Psychology 7e in Modules

Behavioral Perspective Focuses on our ____________ behaviors. Only cares about the behaviors that impair our living, and attempts to change them. If you bit your fingernails when you were nervous, a behaviorist would not focus on calming you down, but rather focus on how to stop you from biting your nails.

BEHAVIORISTS How people learn __________ and ________________ John B. Watson John B. Watson Psychology 7e in Modules

Cognitive Perspective Focuses on how we think (or encode information) How do we see the world? How did we learn to act to sad or happy events? Cognitive Therapist attempt to change the way you __________. Meet girl Get Rejected by girl Did you learn to be depressed Or get back on the horse

Approaches cont. Perceptions more than the sum of its parts GESTALT consider behavior in context rather than in isolation (age, race, gender, money, time, family, etc.) Perceptions more than the sum of its parts Wholes that give meaning to parts COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY not just rewards and punishment How people perceive, store and interpret information How thought processes develop over time (10 years old compared to today)

Social-Cultural Perspective Focus on how your _________ effects your behavior. Even in the same high school, behaviors can change in accordance to the various subcultures. How thinking and behavior change depending on the setting or situation

Humanistic Perspective Focuses on positive growth Attempt to seek _________________ Therapists use active __________ and _____________ positive regard. Mr. Rogers would have made a great Humanistic Therapist!!!

Approaches cont. HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY ECLECTIC people try to achieve their maximum potential (self actualization) Promote health and self-growth ECLECTIC Combination of approaches

Psychology’s Current Perspectives Focus Sample Questions Neuroscience How the body and brain enables emotions? How are messages transmitted in the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives? Evolutionary How the natural selection of traits the promotes the perpetuation of one’s genes? How does evolution influence behavior tendencies? Behavior genetics How much our genes and our environments influence our individual differences? To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to depression attributable to our genes? To our environment? Although debates arise among the psychologists working from differing perspectives, each point of view addresses important questions. Psychology 7e in Modules

Psychology’s Current Perspectives Focus Sample Questions Psychodynamic How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts? How can someone’s personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas? Behavioral How we learn observable responses? How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most effective way to alter our behavior, say to lose weight or quit smoking?

Psychology’s Current Perspectives Focus Sample Questions Cognitive How we encode, process, store and retrieve information? How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Problem solving? Social-cultural How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures? How are we — as Africans, Asians, Australians or North Americans – alike as members of human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?

Human Diversity

Ethnic Diversity

Functions competently within: Biculturalism Functions competently within:

Probing of human diversity Enables students to appreciate the cultural heritages and historical problems of various ethnic groups

Question How can psychologists hope to understand the aspirations and problems of individuals from an ethnic group without understanding the history and cultural heritage of that group?

Gender The state of being male or female Not simply a matter of anatomic sex

Gender Involves:

Question How can sciences such as psychology and medicine hope to understand the particular viewpoints, qualities, and problems of women if most research is conducted with men and by men?

Gender Even much of the scientific research into gender roles and gender differences assumes that male behavior represents the norm.

Other Kinds of Diversity

Contributors Know the different contributions made by women and different ethnic individuals.

Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking Principles of critical thinking Recognizing common fallacies in arguments Critical thinking=education